By Robert Scucci
| Updated 1 minute ago
As holiday-related stress hits critical mass, I’m on a near-constant search for the most mind-numbingly simple entertainment as a way to take a quick break from the rat race whenever the opportunity presents itself. I burned through Season 1 of Mr. Bean earlier this week, which resulted in the almighty algorithm pointing me toward Rowan Atkinson’s Netflix Original series, 2022’s Man vs. Bee. While I’ve seen similar premises play out in other shows, I can’t say I’ve ever watched an entire miniseries that commits to a single idea with this level of absurdity.
With each episode of Man vs. Bee clocking in at roughly 11 minutes, I’d strongly recommend the miniseries to anyone looking for a breezy way to turn their brain off. You can simply watch Rowan Atkinson perform his charming brand of physical comedy as he suffers through chaos entirely of his own making while hunting a bumblebee that becomes the primary source of his torment.
It’s Exactly What It Sounds Like
Man vs. Bee boasts no thematic ambiguity, no moral lessons, and absolutely no reason for you to critically think. It’s nine episodes following a man named Trevor Bingley (Rowan Atkinson), who more or less destroys an entire luxury house while trying to kill a bumblebee. The homeowners, Nina (Jing Lusi) and Christian (Julian Rhind-Tutt) Kolstad-Bergenbatten, are avid art collectors, and their stunning home is decorated wall to wall with priceless artifacts that will inevitably come into play as matters escalate.
Trevor, who has just started working as a house sitter, is recently divorced, has a strained relationship with his ex wife, Jess (Claudie Blakley), and struggles to connect with his estranged daughter, Maddy (India Fowler). His ability to afford taking Maddy camping on holiday hinges entirely on him holding down a steady job.
The strained family dynamic, however, isn’t the primary source of conflict in Man vs. Bee. Trevor, who is obsessive to a fault, can’t stand the fact that a bumblebee followed him into the residence he’s supervising, and he slowly begins to lose his mind in his quest to kill the buzzing menace by any means necessary.
As you’d expect from a Rowan Atkinson vehicle, he’s wildly unsuccessful in this pursuit, and gradually destroys the house from the inside out, one escalating incident at a time. The home’s alarm system repeatedly summons the authorities, and the Kolstad-Bergenbatten’s gardener is left baffled as he watches Trevor’s increasingly erratic behavior from afar.
It’s Been Done Before, But Not Like This
If you’re reading this and thinking Man vs. Bee sounds strikingly similar to the controversial Beavis and Butthead episode “Die, Fly! Die!,” you’re not wrong. Any Breaking Bad fan will also recognize the premise, as Season 3 features an entire episode called “Fly,” which revolves around Walter White and Jesse Pinkman trying to catch a bug that could potentially contaminate their state of the art meth lab.
The key difference is that those are standalone episodes. Man vs. Bee takes that same energy and stretches it into completely unhinged territory, with Trevor essentially becoming Wile E. Coyote in his attempts to catch the bee. Every plan backfires, every episode leaves him worse off than before, and it’s genuinely beautiful to watch a grown man completely unravel over a bug that isn’t really bothering anyone in the first place.
One of the most refreshing Netflix Originals I’ve seen in a long time, Man vs. Bee is exactly what you need if you’re craving mindless entertainment that feels like live-action Looney Tunes. Sometimes you just need stupid physical comedy in the rotation, and if that’s what you’re after, you can breeze through the entire miniseries in about 90 minutes instead of wasting your time on trash like The Woman in Cabin 10.
